


Fragility

by Twisted_Slinky



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, One-Sided Attraction, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 17:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17308508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twisted_Slinky/pseuds/Twisted_Slinky
Summary: Season 2 Snippet. When she sees him in the hall, she chooses: Stiles. Derek said to get close to one of them to find out what they know, specifically who they know, because they have what the pack doesn't, the name of the kanima. Scott is the choice her wolf wants to make, but Erica is a girl, and the girl part of her will always gravitate toward Stiles Stilinski.





	Fragility

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the HC Bingo fill "head trauma."

They're fragile. She thinks it when she sees him, crumpling to the ground, folding so quickly. They, not we, because she doesn't count herself as just a person anymore. She's something separate, something strong, something unbreakable, now. They, people, are fragile, and she remembers that when she sees him collapse.

The blow was fast, fierce, but she held back. She thought she held back. Stiles is out, and she knows that, in the seconds it took her to figure out how to keep Stiles out of the way, she hadn't weighed that option well.

Fear tastes like a seizure, working its way up her throat. She pushes it back down again. She's a beast now. She's in control of her life from now on, and she has no reason to be afraid. But she is, because Stiles is unconscious. Breathing, thank God, but fully out, and she knows the blow could have killed him just as easily.

She puts him where people won't see him, in the dumpster, and listens for his heartbeat until she's too far away to hear it, convincing herself that he's fine. When she mentions to Derek that Stiles won't be a problem, she doesn't give details, out of shame, and hopes he can't hear the guilt she's trying to hide.

I could have killed him, she thinks, and she quiets that voice with bravado and flirtation. If she stays up the whole night thinking about the bruise on his head, that's her business.

* * *

When she sees him in the hall at school, she chooses: Stiles. Derek said to get close to one of them to find out what they know, specifically who they know, because they have what the pack doesn't, the name of the kanima. Scott is the choice her wolf wants to make, but Erica is a girl, and the girl part of her will always gravitate toward Stiles Stilinski in the end.

She speaks, she bats her eyes and pretends she holds all the cards. She tells him she can get him info on Jackson's real parents. It takes her longer than she'd want to admit, but she suddenly knows the answer to the question she's been asking. It's Jackson. Test or no test, Jackson is the monster.

Fucking knew it.

"You can't tell Derek, okay?" Stiles begs. "There's a  _lot_  more to this that you don't know about, and just because you got the Alpha Bite-makeover doesn't give you a license to go around destroying people."

She feels the confession on the tip of her tongue, slipping out without regard for the fact that she was planning to defend herself. "Why not? That's all anybody ever used to do to me. I used to have the worst crush on you. Yeah- you, Stiles." She's been dying to say it. Dying to see that shocked look on his face. Hoping it was shocked, at least, because she'd be mortified if he'd known all along. "And you never  _once_  even noticed me." The expression, the one she was looking forward to seeing, was there…about two seconds before it was replaced with worried curiosity. Was he even listening? "Exactly how you're not noticing me right now," she finished, not even surprised.

When Jackson goes full Exorcism in the library later and she finds herself on her side, paralyzed, she has time to know the seizure is coming. Seconds stretch out long and last. She thinks about the confession to Stiles. She thinks about the fact that he didn't pull away from her-that was what she'd feared most, a look of mild disgust or pity, which was usually what met pre-wolf Erica when she tried to tell a boy how she felt. But Stiles had only been mildly surprised and immediately susceptible to distraction.

She's reminded of why she liked him back then. Why some part of her still likes him now. Then she's convulsing, and she wonders if this has all been a dream, the bite, the magical cure to all her problems.

When she's in agony and her Alpha is pulling her free from the fog, she breaches consciousness in Stiles Stilinski's arms, and is mildly dumbfounded. Because he knows her, who she was, who she is. He's seen her pathetic and he's seen her vicious and he's heard her secrets. But he's still touching her, holding her up in his arms. Her hero.

I put you in a dumpster, she thinks. I almost killed you.

"Stiles, you make a good Batman," she says, instead.

Her thoughts are still a bit murky, but she thinks maybe she remembers Catwoman redeeming herself at some point. Maybe the label wasn't such a bad one after all.

**Author's Note:**

> So as soon as I finished writing this tiny character study, I was struck with how much I really want to write an Erica/Stiles that focuses on Stiles' head trauma and deviates from the canon so that Erica survives...But I don't have time for that. Why, plot bunnies? Why?


End file.
